Various sports are involved with potential rapid movement of the player's head and it is one of the most common causes of injury resulting from impact force that leads to concussion and other traumas. Football is one of the most popular sports among youth. However, according to the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine website, it is leading in the number of injuries that are sustained by the players. Besides injuries and long term damage, it also causes death to players. According to the U.S. Product Safety Commission, in 2007 close to one million football-related injuries of athletes under the age of 18 were treated in emergency rooms, doctor's offices, and clinics. Regardless of the protective equipment that is currently used, the force that brings the players down to the ground leads to bodily injury and the highest concern is that of damage to the players' head and neck.
There is a need to protect the head of players and their susceptibility to concussion, which is a change in the mental state due to a traumatic impact. The helmets that are currently in use are unable to prevent the high speed forceful movement of the head that results from impact during games.
There is a need for protecting the head of users of plurality of games, particularly in football and car racing.
There are previous solutions for protecting the player's from impacts during the games and we will cite some of them here.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,944,194 issued to McNeil et. al. on Mar. 15, 2004, discloses a sport equipment for protecting the cervical spine where a pair of cylinders connect the helmet to the shoulders or a vest on the players and are interconnected and controlled by an outside pilot-operated valve. The cylinders are rigidized when an impact creates a higher pressure inside the cylinders but this equipment only prevents the cervical spine from being compressed in the axial direction.
U.S. Pat. No. 209,617 issued to Castillo on Feb. 28, 2008, discloses a system for protecting the head by connecting a helmet to the shoulder cuff using a plurality of pistons interconnected with tubes to a central reservoir.
U.S. Pat. No. 305,350 issued to Ericksen et. al. on May 31, 2012, discloses a position sensitive and position activated apparatus for dampening the motion of a piston inside a cylinder that may not be activated in the fully extended configuration of the apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 157,543 issued to Huang et. al. on Dec. 4, 2015, discloses a device to reduce traumatic brain injury that includes a sensor, a linkage, and a processing element. The motion restriction of the linkage element is controlled electrically (sensor and processing unit) and a fluid moves thru a side path.
Although the devices and methods present in the prior art deserve undeniable merits it is believed that the method and apparatus presented in the current solution are different from prior art, present a simpler solution and a higher level of protecting the players from impacts or higher accelerations/decelerations.